Mafia 2 – PC – Preview

2K Czech is ready to
unleash a world of organized crime with the upcoming sequel Mafia II.
Full of flavor of the 1940’s, gamers shall expect countless dirty deeds among
their adventure to move up the ranks in the mob family.

Developed as a
single-player only action title, 2K Czech is attempting to mix in elements from
the 1940’s, create a sandbox game with the best third-person action elements,
and provide a cinematic narrative to flesh out a humanized story.

Playing as Vito, gamers
will endure 10 years of his life throughout the game as he starts off in 1945
and ends his career in crime in mid-1950. Having customization options during
your career as a mobster, players will have the chance to buy casual clothes to
wear and when the time requires it, disguises to enter into secured buildings.

Inspired by real places,
the world of Empire Bay is split into 20 districts with 10 square miles of
distance to cover. Each district will have its unique NPCs and cars to go along
with different propaganda of the time to spice up the environments. Showcasing
the winter season in the demonstration, players will have to adjust to icy roads
to escape from police who are on the hunt for Vito.

Speaking of the police, a
change from the original Mafia is the downscaling of how hard the police
will hunt you down on a chase. So if you run a red light, you won’t have to try
and outrun the police for 30 minutes. The cops did seem to be a little dimwitted
as they passed by Vito without a clue that he is the suspect of the burning
distillery that went into flames.

About the distillery,
Vito was on a mission to hunt down “The Fatman”, a man who has forgot to pay his
protection fees to the mafia. Gunning him down through his own distillery,
Vito’s superior Henry is shot in the leg and Vito must escort him in a car to a
nearby mafia doctor to check the gunshot wound in the leg.

Throughout the demo, 2K
Czech turned off the HUD as it is a work in progress at this point. They did
guarantee that they are working hard at creating a minimal HUD and the ability
to turn off a HUD for players who can run through the game without ever
flinching.

As for the gameplay,
players can baseball slide into cover, lean around corners to eliminate enemies
and kick down doors to find new passageways to the end of a level. With 15-20
hours of gameplay – not including the extra side missions –, along with four
different endings, Mafia II has a certain degree of replay value not seen
in similar games in the genre.

Scheduled for an early
2010 release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Mafia II is bound to
please fans of organized crime.

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